Until we view basic health care as a human right instead of a fungible commodity, nothing will change.

We need a single payer system. In spite of the horror stories opponents like to tell (as if there's any country-sized system anywhere that's not going to have a few examples of problems), in most of those countries if you asked them if they'd like to exchange their system for ours, overwhelmingly people say "no".

Honestly, I really feel like we have it TOO GOOD in this country, and those who believe the government does nothing well and stands in the way of personal liberty have lost sight of all of the things they don't have to worry about BECAUSE our government handles them so well and so efficiently. To be part of a society, you have to have a social contract. And to have an effective social contract, you have to have a way of enforcing and administering it. That is government.

Last night, my girlfriend and I were discussing this, and we sort of came up with the idea that anyone who is against health care reform and a single payer system should spend a year living in Germany or the UK and get sick at least a couple of times while doing it. And anyone who continues to believe that government does nothing well and is just an inhibitor on "liberty" should spend a year in Somalia or some other country where you've got all the damned liberty you want, no one restricts your ability to do anything you want. See if that's really more to your liking.

Honestly, these people have lived their entire lives living with the benefits of our society, the benefits our government, and our unions, and our level of socialization has purchased for them, that they honestly do not believe that being given an anarchy-level of freedom would result in society changing at all.

It's like someone who had never gone hungry a day in their life talking about how unimportant the supply line for food is. They simply cannot conceive of the concept of hunger, and so the consequences of losing the thing they think is unimportant are just not recognizable to them.